Didi launches intercity carpooling service in Chengdu

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has launched an intercity car-pooling service in Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan Province, running along two routes between Jintang County and Pidu District.

Launched in 2017, this service features a long-distance car-pooling function with clear regional operating limitation, which is somewhat different from the hitching service that has been suspended in last August after a woman passenger was murdered by a Didi’s driver. From the time being, the company has not deployed the service in Beijing, the company told a local media.

(Photo source: official website of Didi Chuxing)

It is reported that the intercity carpooling service in Chengdu partners with local passenger transport enterprises who will be responsible for the offline management of drivers, providing them with professional service and safety training. Meanwhile, Didi’s platform is obliged to guarantee the safe operation and multiple security functions.

A driver must be trained before receiving his first order, and then still need to receive training per month. Besides, drivers should comply with the platfrom’s regulation against fatigue driving behavior. If any disputes happened, users can seek evidences from the recording logged by the platform without disclosing privacy.

Although Didi is still the biggest player in China’s ride-hailing market, it has been facing increasing competition from more and more companies. Meituan Dache, the ride-hailing arm of Chinese lifestyle services platform Meituan-Dianping, recently expanded its “aggregation” car-hailing service into another 15 cities in China, allowing users to access cars on several ride-hailing platforms via Meituan’s app, such as Shouqi Limousine & Chauffeur, Cao Cao and UCAR.

EV startup XPENG Motors also becomes a new player in ride-hailing domain. The startup launched its ride-hailing trial operation on May 16 in Guangzhou under a service brand of Pengster. Unlike other operators, the new service will only use its Xpeng G3 SUVs which are all run by dedicated chauffeurs.